Of the thousand eyes, one nodalex caught Gnomon’s attention. Idle and unproductive, it sat on the dry sand stacking pebbles into piles.
N-0x7G3BDdE44fe8, thought Gnomon, deciding it pertinent to name the appendage.
Pebblex, Gnomon flagged the wayward nodalex via the ship’s Metatron. Considering how far away from Gnomon-Prime they were, Gnomon considered prudent it personally monitors all anomalies no matter how trivial.
Continue reading “Draconis Prime”
It’s not every night you stumble across something on the internet that is as bizarre as being officially acknowledged for helping to find an exoplanet. I enrolled with Planet Hunter years ago (around 2011), and dabbled for fun picking out images that may indicate the presence of a planet orbiting a star.
The process was both challenging and rewarding, as I learned more about the science behind exoplanetary research and had a chance to contribute to real scientific discovery. Although I haven’t been active on the platform for some time, I look back on my time with Planet Hunter fondly and am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of this exciting field.
Planet Hunter is a citizen science project launched by the Zooniverse organization, which allows anyone to help discover new worlds beyond our solar system. After analyzing data from the Kepler space telescope, I found several potential transit events, which looked like they indicated the presence of a planet orbiting a distant star. I logged my findings and forgot about it.
Being officially acknowledged for contributing to the search for new planets is a unique experience for a writer, especially in science fiction, and a testament to the power of citizen science. It’s amazing to think that anyone with an internet connection can make a significant contribution to our understanding of the universe.
Easy stuff really.
Continue reading “First Planet Candidates Discovered by Planet Hunters”